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Top 10 Star Trek TOS Episodes?


Greg1138

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Sorry if this is repeating an earlier thread - I couldn't find one, but it seems like the kind of thread one would expect to find in these here parts....

Simples - please name your top 10 favourite TOS episodes. If you want to go into detail as to why, then even better - but don't feel you need to.

Greg

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1. City on the Edge of Forever, does it need an explanation, time travel, love, loss. Its all there, yes it is.

2. A Piece of the Action, a tour de force of comedy, set pieces, and plain ole fun.

3. Balance of Terror, if a chess match could be filmed this is it.

4. The Doomsday Machine, they called me, they begged me for help, 400 of them, I couldn't, I, I couldn't.

5. This Side of Paradise, Kirk a God, indians, and asteroids, and a baby Kirk who dies.

6. The Menagerie, a two parter that shows just how far Spock's loyalty is. First to Pike, then to Kirk. Great use of the first pilot.

7. The Immunity Syndrome, A vulcan starship, a giant amoeba, and Spock botched the acetylcholine tests!

8. Requiem for Methusalah, the story of a man who live nearly for ever.

9. Day of the Dove, great klingon episode, where no one dies, and Kirk and Kang become friends.

10. Errand of Mercy, the Klingons and Federation at war.

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Even though I love the

, there is a high chance I haven't seen all of the episodes that were made. Star Trek was always shown in a very random and choppy manner here, from memory. When I was very young, I remember the OS on at a regular 18:00 kind of timeslot, and then they would appear again in following years at obscure times (along with that cartoon version) late at night or early in the morning on a Saturday when the last thing I wanted to do was wake up early after a hard weeks's work (Cue Violin). With all the various Star Trek series, that has been the case I found. Especially Next Generation. Episodes shown in jumbled order, poorly announced new seasons, and channels dropping it and satellite channels picking it up without announcement. Greg will probably tell me that it was all actually shown quite orderly and clearly and that I was completely out to lunch (it's very possible). For some reason I have strong memorys of the really silly episodes like 'Charlie X...X.....x.........x', and 'Whom Gods Destroy'(remooooooove this animal!!!). But I do love The Cage. :happybday:
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1. City on the Edge of Forever, does it need an explanation, time travel, love, loss. Its all there, yes it is.

4. The Doomsday Machine, they called me, they begged me for help, 400 of them, I couldn't, I, I couldn't.

I've been buying random episodes on iTunes now and then. These sound like good bets. I'm also going to buy "Spock's Brain," because, hell, I'm curious.

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I'm going to borrow a friend's copies of seasons 1 and 2 on Blu next week after I watch the new movie again. I watched a lot of the good eps online earlier in the year, now I want to go ahead and see the whole thing again.

Henry, Doomsday Machine is definately a solid bet. It might be my favorite.

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Keep in mind cbs.com has all the episodes for free...

"The Video you have requested is not available for your Geographic Region".

'Shoulder to Shoulder' / 'Special Relationship', my Arse :D

Our troops are in Afghanistan and I can't even watch the Trouble with Tribbles :happybday::P

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It's funny that this question shows up NOW. About two weeks ago my wife and I started to watch TOS.

Tomorrow we have the last episode of the 1.season. After that I can may give an answer, but maybe I will forget until then :happybday:

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Keep in mind cbs.com has all the episodes for free...

"The Video you have requested is not available for your Geographic Region".

'Shoulder to Shoulder' / 'Special Relationship', my Arse :D

Our troops are in Afghanistan and I can't even watch the Trouble with Tribbles :happybday::P

The BBC does the same thing to us. "This video is not available in your region". If it was I wouldn't have to go to YouTube!

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Star Trek TOS is also on YouTube as well, though the whole region thing would probably still prevent you from watching it.

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The BBC does the same thing to us.

BBC probably blocks things like iplayer internationally John because of our nasty draconian little Government (see this video) imposing a yearly TV licence fee of £142.50 (US$238) on each household for the privelege of being able to pick up the BBC Channel. We have to pay it even if we're only intending to use the television set to watch the other independent channels that are funded by commercials advertising (they get around this one by 'claiming' that we're paying a licence for the set itself).

When lots of full length BBC material starting going up on the web to the degree of iplayer, it became even tricky for this reason. Folks here would seriously want to know why they'd be paying £142.50 if it can be watched for free online, from outside of the country. Generosity has its place, but for what we're charged, that's going a bit far.

Our licensing (linked to radio) has been around since 1946 and payed without question up until recent times where people are starting to question and pick apart the justifications given for it, especially as it keeps going up in price each year. Now some are even questioning the legality of it in the courts, in terms of a licence requirement restricting freedom of information for those who can't or won't pay. Officially, watching full length BBC material online comes under the juristiction of needing a licence (at least, that's what they're trying to tell us). I'm not sure if anyone has been prosecuted here for not owning a TV set but watching everything on iplayer.

With the net presence, they're on flimsy ground. To be safe, I think they just blocked international access in the meantime.

Over in the States I hear that although you're mostly free of this kind of situation, you have some locations which have a similar TV Tax thing going? I'm not sure what CBS is classified as. It may be that they blocked international access to their full length Star Trek episodes for a similar reason? My view is that if BBC just gave in to adverts (and it's about time it did), it would be a lot easier for everyone. BBC material could be watched domestically and internationally without hassle.

Some may say that even if commercials were put on though, they would be falling on deaf ears as international viewers don't have that particular warehouse or pizza parlour in their country and advertising won't gather customers. I suppose that could arise for advertising on BBC too if it was international.

I'm not sure if folks can get around the iplayer block. I'm sure some probably can. That Dutchy Stefan seems to be very well aqquainted with lots of Beeb material :happybday:

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Oh yeah, I know all about the license fee, one of the many things I discovered in my teen years when I was absorbing everything I could get my hands on concerning British culture (spurred on my wanting to know what the Python throwaway line one ep "And they want to put the license fee up?" joke meant :happybday:). And the Beeb's net presence was very flimsy for a long while, I remember when they were still doing miniscule little movies in RealPlayer long after the YouTube revolution had begun. I watched the series 2 TARDISodes that way.

Over here all the long standing "basic" channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, and later comers Fox and the CW) can be gotten for free, as well as a smattering of local channels, but to get everything you have to get cable or satellite. There are nominal government taxes on those, but most of it goes to the privately owned service provider.

[rant]Though given the continued intrusion of government into all aspects of private life, you have to wonder how long it'll stay that way.[/rant]

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1. City on the Edge of Forever, does it need an explanation, time travel, love, loss. Its all there, yes it is.

4. The Doomsday Machine, they called me, they begged me for help, 400 of them, I couldn't, I, I couldn't.

I've been buying random episodes on iTunes now and then. These sound like good bets. I'm also going to buy "Spock's Brain," because, hell, I'm curious.

there are good and there are bad episodes, but I like them all equally, some more equal than others.

Spock's Brain is deliciously bad.

Let The Be Your Last Battlefield is preachy bad, but bi-color people, who'd of thunk it.

The Way to Eden is deliciously bad because its so 60's. Space Hippies, and the music is actually cool. Spock gets down.

Turnabout Intruder is the last episode and it is "bad" bad. Kirk in drag. Well almost.

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Well it's a good thing that the days of individual episodes on a single VHS tape, or an overpriced DVD pack containing two episodes apiece, are over. Now individual seasons of TOS are pretty affordable, and online options abound.

So a top ten list is just a starting point, that leads to the second ten, the third ten, and before you know it, you've watched them all. Even the worst episodes are so worth watching.

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Joe's list is nice, but where are Amok Time or Mirror, Mirror?

Space Seed is a mediocre episode at best. It's only popular because of Trek II.

Neil

I'm not a big fan of Amok Time, but love the ending, and I admit I forgot about Mirror Mirro, Spock with a Beard, great stuff.

Space Seed is good because one its so not politically correct, big bonus points there, but its not among my to 10

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I thought Space Seed was more highly regarded, it's always been one of my favorites. It even has the unintentionally funny with the horribly obvious shots of the Kirk and Khan stunt doubles during their fight.

If I made a top 5 Doomsday Machine and Mirror, Mirror would definately be up there. Along with Balance of Terror, City on the Edge of Forever, and...a Klingon ep, probably Errand of Mercy. Or The Trouble with Tribbles. Man, this is getting me excited to watch them all again, even the crappy ones.

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I thought Space Seed was more highly regarded, it's always been one of my favorites. It even has the unintentionally funny with the horribly obvious shots of the Kirk and Khan stunt doubles during their fight.

that wasn't exclusive to that episode.

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Space Seed featured Ricardo Montalban chewing up the scenery. If Trek II had adopted a completely different storyline, the episode would still be popular just for having Mister Rourke play such a cunning villain.

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I remember reading reviews of Star Trek The Wrath of Khan and critics saying he was miscast.

How in the name of God can the person who originated a role be miscast.

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Is that an indication of how far off the radar Star Trek had fallen in 1982? Yikes.

Of course, if the critic did not subscribe to the school of geek like many fans at the time did, then all the references to Space Seed in the film would not have triggered any memories for the critic if he/she did not remember the episode.

Before Star Trek II, the Botany Bay, Khan, his wife, his followers, and Ceti Alpha V all existed in prior works. Star Trek TMP has just as large of a backstory through allusion, but practically none of it existed before that film. How would a non-Trek fan know the difference?

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Charlie X (An angry teenager who can make your face vanish! Scary!)

The Naked Time (great fun)

The Corbomite Maneuver (again, great fun!)

Space Seed (Khaaaaan!)

Amok Time (Spock fails to get lucky...)

The Doomsday Machine (the remastered version with new effects is breathtakingly good)

I know that's only 6, but I have yet to finish rewatching the DVDs so I may come back and add another 4 later.

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"The Menagerie" does it for me, every time, and to think that it was created because the "Star Trek" team needed a couple of episodes to make up the length of the opening season...

If only Joan Collins had died in "The Stud"; The World would be soooooo different.

P.s., what's the name of the episode where Kirk, et. al. think that some people worship the sun, but discover that they worship "The Son". I like that one.

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